Banking & Finance - ArkansasBusiness.com

Debbie Arnold has joined Peoples Bank as Vice President of Marketing according to Mary Fowler, President and CEO.

A Mayflower man with a history of problems with state regulators is the subject of a cease-and-desist order issued Thursday by Arkansas Securities Commissioner Edmond Waters.

First Community Bank of Batesville reached $1 billion in assets on July 31, four days before its 18th birthday, Chairman and CEO Dale Cole announced.

The rules of customer engagement have changed dramatically in recent years: Your potential buyers know more — or at least believe that they know more — than ever.

Federal programs that encourage massive borrowing by grad students and then allow much of the debt to be “forgiven,” a deceptively benign term, are behind this disturbing trend. And critics from both the left and the right are critical of the situation.

American Banker published last week a thought-provoking article by Victoria Finkle headlined “Is Dodd-Frank Really Killing Community Banks?” I'm not one of those old-school editors who object to questions as headlines — we use them in Arkansas Business and no apologies — and the question intrigued me. Have I been suckered?

A look at wages and payouts from games of chance in Arkansas.

World stock markets plunged on Monday after China's main index sank 8.5 percent — its biggest drop since the early days of the global financial crisis — amid deepening fears over the health of the world's second-largest economy.

For years, investors in U.S. stocks shrugged off threats — a government shutdown, fear of a euro collapse, a near U.S. debt default — and just kept on buying. Now, buyers are hard to find.

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee accused China on Monday of reneging on trade deals and continued his push for a national sales tax.

H. Dennis Smiley Jr., the former president of Arvest Bank's Benton County market, will waive indictment Tuesday morning and enter a plea of guilty in federal court to one count of bank fraud, sources have told Arkansas Business. Smiley has been under investigation since the spring of 2014, when he resigned from Arvest.

The U.S. economy posted a much bigger rebound in growth during the spring than previously reported, thanks to improvements in a number of areas including consumer spending and business investment.

Former Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner is scheduled to be sentenced for her convictions on extortion and bribery charges. Prosecutors have asked the federal judge to make Shoffner an example for other state officials with a 15- to 18-year sentence.

ER Park Avenue Apartments LLC, an affiliate of Equity Resources LLC of Birmingham, Alabama, purchased Park Avenue Lofts at 320 S. University Ave. The development previously was linked with a February 2012 mortgage of $21.6 million held by Arvest Bank of Fayetteville.

Henry Dennis Smiley Jr. — the Jr. matters in this case — pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of bank fraud. But the plea agreement identifies 23 banks as his victims, and that doesn't include Arvest Bank, which had trusted him to be president of its Benton County market.

Waiving his right to be indicted by a federal grand jury and pleading guilty has made Dennis Smiley Jr.'s prosecution faster and cheaper for all concerned, but it also means that there are a lot of things we'll probably never know about his crimes.

Arkansas Federal Credit Union was uninvited from participating in the consortium of lenders providing a $17.5 million financing package for the Little Rock Tech Park at the request of the Arkansas Bankers Association.

First National Bank of Lawrence County has been the victim of a fraud valued at approximately $3.9 million, President and CEO Milton Smith has acknowledged.

Bentonville retains its spot atop the Arkansas Tech Business Index, while eight of the 18 cities listed on the index finished the second quarter of 2015 with a rating greater than 100.

Southern Bancorp Community Partners has raised $2.5 million toward a $5 million goal to expand its revolving loan fund for underserved communities in Arkansas and Mississippi.

Peoples Bank Names Debbie Arnold as VP

Securities Department Issues Third Order Against Timothy Lilly

First Community of Batesville Reaches $1 Billion Mark

Being Interesting to Buyers (Jim Karrh On Marketing)

The Grad Student Debt Bomb (Editorial)

Correlation ≠ Causation (Gwen Moritz Editor's Note)

By the Numbers: Gambling in Arkansas

Chinese Stock Market Plunge Causes Global Rout

Here's Why Stocks Are Tumbling 6 Years into the Bull Market

Mike Huckabee Criticizes China, Trade Deals after Market Drop

Dennis Smiley Jr. to Enter Guilty Plea Today

US Economy Surged at 3.7 Percent Rate in April-June Quarter

Martha Shoffner, Convicted of Bribery, to Be Sentenced Today

Park Avenue Lofts Sells In $36M Transaction (Real Deals)

‘Living Beyond His Means' Catches Up With Dennis Smiley Jr.

Sins of Commission And Omission (Gwen Moritz Editor's Note)

AFCU Withdrawn from Tech Park Package

First National Bank of Lawrence County Bilked of at Least $3.9M

Bentonville Retains Top Spot on ATBI

Southern Bancorp Community Partners Raises $2.5M to Expand Loans